^It's true! I swear my psych professor orgasms every time someone in the class says:

"Wait, this worries me, isn't that ethically questionable? I'm concerned."

Don't sound too uncertain, though. Makes you seem like you don't really have an opinion.

How does the first question pertain to an astronomy class at all....

What a dumb teacher for asking these questions as they have little relevance to what you learned in the course (I think).

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quote:

Originally posted by Yan Don't sound too uncertain, though. Makes you seem like you don't really have an opinion.

yeah. Be concerned about some sort of controversy in what "life" is, yet strong in your solution/view of this problem.

Maybe come to the conclusion that while life could be anything from simply animals to plants and rocks and animals and who know what else on other planets, the important thing is to treat all the world with respect.

Or something equally BS

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Summers there are elements in those rocks that are in your body. think about it.

Yeah but just cos i eat salt and iron and zinc and my body ends up using them doesn't mean they are alive. No more than the fact that there is cowhide in my car interior makes my car a cow.



Back to the point...

From the point of view of a scientist (Astronomy is a science) rocks are non-living.

You should think about things that differentiate living things from non-living things.This isn't an arts/philosophy subject so talking about the "life" of non-living objects will probably not get you far, especially if academics in exact sciences are marking your paper.

Generally "living" things:

• Have complex structure;
  
• Consume natural substances and use them to thrive;
  
• Need external energy of some kind (whether it is taken in through chemical substances, light or heat etc) to continue to live;
  
• Have the capacity to reproduce by replicating at least a part of their DNA to produce similar organisms;
  
• Can and will eventually die - or cease to live, though their chemical components continue to exist. etc...

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Last edited by astroboy on Dec-20-2006 at 06:47

1) good question.
2) no.
3) do you own homework

Theres definetly life elsewhere in the universe just based on chance. I took an astonomy course and although I forget the scientist's name there was a guy who came up with an equation on the probability of existance of life on other planets. He took into account the number of stars in our galaxy and the average number of planets around those stars as well as the factors that come into play that determine whether or not life will develop on a planet (how close it is to the sun, existance of an atmosphere, so on and so forth). It basically determines that due to the number of planets in our galaxy and the many varying conditions on each of them, there is bound to be life on some of them.

It comes down to the fact there are a number of exact conditons that must be present in order for life to develop but there have to be at least a few planets out there that have these conditions present. The universe is simply too large and there are too many stars with too many planets around each for Earth to be the only one that can support life.

quote:

Originally posted by tubularbills 1) good question. 2) no. 3) do you own homework

I thought the same thing at first but they're not asking us to do it for them but just give them ideas. Theres been a few times where I didn't know where to start an essay but after hearing ideas from others it was much easier writing it.

quote:

Originally posted by astroboy Yeah but just cos i eat salt and iron and zinc and my body ends up using them doesn't mean they are alive. No more than the fact that there is cowhide in my car interior makes my car a cow.

Let's say your ancestors buried your great-great-grandmother and they planted a cherry tree on top of her grave. You live on that property and help yourself to a juicy cherry, and at the same time you are pregnant. The cherry tree took the nutrients from the ground, which was taken from the soil which soaked up all the wonderful fermenting juices of your great-great grandmother. You ate the cherry from the cherry tree and the nutrients from that cherry gets absorbed by the placenta and that energy builds your baby. You now have an atom that was in your great-great grandmother in your baby. Congratulations!

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"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

lol its not homework, its an in class essay i have to do as part of my final, he just said to think about it


and as for mr. astroboy, thanks for all the input! its a great help

and tubularbills... u just lost my vote

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quote:

Originally posted by Marc Summers Let's say your ancestors buried your great-great-grandmother and they planted a cherry tree on top of her grave. You live on that property and help yourself to a juicy cherry, and at the same time you are pregnant. The cherry tree took the nutrients from the ground, which was taken from the soil which soaked up all the wonderful fermenting juices of your great-great grandmother. You ate the cherry from the cherry tree and the nutrients from that cherry gets absorbed by the placenta and that energy builds your baby. You now have an atom that was in your great-great grandmother in your baby. Congratulations!

You gotta figure too the water you drink was once probably someone's urine at one point, probably many times over.